rice paper and fko highlights

Neat...a couple copies of Rice Paper magazine landed in my mailbox today, and I found that they'd made my interview the cover story (see cover photo)...the cover blurb reads: "Centre Stage in Cyberspace - The World of Debbie Ridpath Ohi". (stop laughing, Allison and Jodi!) They did a great job at writing up the interview (they make me sound so much more interesting than I really am), and obviously did a lot of behind-the-scenes research via the Web. There's even a paragraph about Urban Tapestry and filk. :-) Speaking of interviews, looks like I'm also going to be mentioned in an article next month in Sympatico Netlife magazine. The fact-checker called yesterday to verify...well...FACTS. :-)

Got my official book contract from Writer's Digest, woohoo!...mailed it off today.

Sorry for the lack of blatherings lately; I've been struggling to pull myself out of the accumulated work and recovering from a spam attack on my list. Hey, we found out from Randy Hoffman that two of our songs ("Cuz He's A Guy" and "Sex and Chocolate") are going to be airing on Dr. Demento! Very cool.

We'll be posting an official FKO report this weekend, but here are a few of my personal highlights (lots more in the official report):

• Having Mark Osier show up! MarkO wrote our bio for the program book, by the way, for which we will get revenge someday. >:-)
• Finding out that Katy Dröge was at FKO! Another total surprise. This was after others (who were in the know) had sadly told us she wouldn't be able to make it.
• Meeting Rika from Germany, Katy's friend. SUPERnice, and multi-talented.
• Handmade card and portrait of Choco-Vampira from Taunya Shiffer.
• Meeting Don Neill's family for the first time.
• Hearing Joey Shoji sing "Cranes Over Hiroshima". First song I ever heard him sing. He had asked me to play flute accompaniment (without mentioning what song it was). I started tootling along, but then gave up and reached for my tissues instead. :-)
• Seeing photos from Tom and Dave's guest stint in the UK! Nice to be able to connect faces with some of the names (of course I recognized a bunch already).
• Joel Polowin's chocolate-cheesecake brownies in the con suite!
• Finally getting hold of the new Phoenix CD (Katy kindly sold me hers).
• Seeing old friends again.
• Chocolate rhino from Dave and Tom.
• Hearing Gary Ehrlich & Joe Neff's parody of "Sensitive New Age Guys" (when are the lyrics going up on your page, Gary?)
• Filk Hall of Fame awards...many happy tears. :-)
• Having Interfilk guest Harold Groot be our Guy on "Cuz He's A Guy" in our concert!
• Getting a birthday card and handmade beaded lizard from Lyanne Quirt.
• Seeing our Interfilk basket go for $550! Allison, Jodi and I were utterly floored (insert jaws hitting floor here). To Steve Brinich: thank you thank you thank you thank you for supporting Interfilk!!!!!!!!!!
• Lloyd and Yvonne Penney's con suite chili, yum!
• San Francisco chocolate from Joey (wow, it even comes with instructions)
• Seeing Karen Linsley's and Lloyd Landa's spankin' new CD, ROAD TO ROSWELL!!!!!!!!!!!!! They got their CDs hours before FKO officially opened. I was also thrilled to see my name in the credits, too. :-) (I play flute on a couple of tracks)
• Chocolate pasta from Paul Kwinn (I'll be reporting on the result in my Blatherings, never fear)
• Hearing the choral workshop perform under the tutelage of Ed Stauff...wow, they were great!
• Playing Battleship with Steve Macdonald on our Pilots (after he beamed it to me). We are SUCH technogeeks, aren't we? :-)
• In our concert, hearing the whole room sing along on the course of our last song ("Home To FilKONtario")...made me want to cry.
  
  

Lots, lots more...see our report this weekend for details. The FKO concom did an amazing job, and it will be a convention we will never forget.

I also have to confess I fell in love during the convention. (Geez, I hope Jeff isn't reading this)

Leo Neill. Friendly, empathic, a killer smile that would melt any woman's heart. Leo and I hung out as much as we could during the convention, but we knew our time was limited.

Did I mention Leo is 11 months old? :-)